The AICP Awards Honors The Best Advertising of the Year

June 7, 2019
by Screenmag

Winners of the AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the American Commercial were presented last night at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Together with the AICP Next Awards, which were presented on June 4 at The Tishman Auditorium in New York, and the AICP Post Awards, which were presented on May 16 at Navy Pier in Chicago, they comprise the AICP Awards’ juried competitions. Daniel Bergmann, Founder and President of Stink, was Chairperson of the AICP Show, while Jaime Robinson, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of JOAN Creative, was the AICP Next Awards Judging Chair.

The AICP Show premiere at MoMA closed out AICP Week, a celebration of advertising in the motion image, which also included the AICP Next Awards and AICP Week Base Camp, which features educational seminars and panels.

Each category of the AICP Show may have up to three winners, with the exception of Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial, and Advertising Excellence/Campaign, which each may have only one honoree, making those pieces “Best in Show.” “Dream Crazier” for Nike out of Wieden + Kennedy and directed by Kim Gehrig of Somesuch was honored for Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial. The spot celebrates the achievements of women in sports by noting the challenges they face in acceptance, recognition and respect. It also won the first-ever AICP Community Award, decided from among the Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial Shortlist by the viewing public.

The New York Times’ “The Truth is Worth It” campaign, comprising the spots “Perseverance,” “Fearlessness” and “Rigor,” was honored for Advertising Excellence/Campaign. Directed by Martin + Lindsay of Furlined for Droga5, the campaign, shows the determined steps reporters must go through to break significant news stories for The New York Times.

New to the AICP Show this year was the naming of a Marketer of the Year, and the honor went to Nike. The award recognizes the Brand /Advertiser that has made a significant impact on the commercial industry by bringing together collaborative teams to create marketing communications in the motion image that not only exemplify an understanding of the creative craft but also serves as an inspiration to their creative partners. The AICP Show Curators determined the Marketer of the Year honoree based on one or more pieces from all category shortlists.

At the AICP Next Awards, presented on June 4 at the Tishman Auditorium in New York, the Most Next honor (Best in Show) went to Pernod Ricard’s “The Time We Have Left” from Leo Burnett Madrid. Accepting on behalf of the agency was Mark Tutssel, Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett. The film, which shows people reacting to an online tool showing them how much time they actually have left to spend with their loved ones, sparked a public discourse about the role of technology in society and the need to focus on real-life relationships. It was directed by Felix Fernandez de Castro of the Spanish production company Tesauro.

The winner of the Most Next honor directs a $5,000 grant from the AICP Foundation to an educational institution of their choosing. Leo Burnett Madrid has directed the grant to Reboot & Recover (http://www.rebootandrecover.org/), a Florida-based non-profit with a mission to help people reduce their screen time by providing solutions for balanced living in a technology-driven world.

The most honored production companies in the AICP Awards (across the Show and Next) are Epoch, Furlined and MJZ, with 6 honors each, followed by O Positive, RadicalMedia and Somesuch, which each earned four honors. Biscuit Filmworks and SMUGGLER each received three honors.

Among directors, Martin de Thurah of Epoch received six honors. Spike Jonze of MJZ received five honors while Kim Gehrig of Somesuch and Dougal Wilson of Furlined each received four honors. Derek Cianfrance of RadicalMedia received three honors.

Also new to the Show was is a Best New Director category. The inaugural winner of this honor is Jenn Nkiru of ICONOCLAST. She was honored in recognition for her work on a spot titled “Black to Techno” for Gucci & Frieze.

On the agency front, BBDO earned nine honors (comprising seven for BBDO New York and one each for AlmapBBDO and AMV BBDO), as did Droga5, while Wieden+Kennedy earned six honors. The in-house agency at Apple earned five honors and R/GA earned four honors. DDB and the in-house agency at Squarespace each earned three honors.

Topping the list of honored brands was Apple, with six honors, followed by Hennessy and Nike, the AICP Show’s Marketer of the Year, with four each. AT&T, HBO, Nordstrom, Samsung Global and Squarespace had three honors each.

Following its premiere at MoMA, the Show and Next Awards will tour museums and cultural institutions around the country and abroad. All of this year’s winners – along with the entire AICP Show and AICP Next Awards archive – are available for viewing at the newly-redesigned AICP Awards site, www.aicpawards.com.

Each year, the honored work from both the AICP Show and the Next Awards presentations becomes a part of the archives of the Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art. The collection now numbers over 1,975 pieces of advertising in the motion image.

The Art & Technique of the American Commercial has a bifurcated judging system, which begins with a series of judging panels featuring over 400 judges from across the country and around the world, with experts in various fields judging work across the 22 categories. The process culminates in the meeting of the Curatorial Committee, which is the final arbiter in the disposition of the Show, confirming eligibility and appropriateness to category.

Sibling Rivalry created the staging, opening sequence and graphic navigation for the AICP Next Awards premiere, while Yessian provided music. The AICP Show reel features custom-designed graphics by Stink Studios, which also provided original music and sound design. The Show Sponsor reel and loop was created by Golden Wolf, with music by Antfood.

Sponsors help make all of the events during AICP Week possible. AICP Partners and Supporting Partners, who support all AICP events throughout the year, are: CAPS – A Cast & Crew Company and Universal Studios (Partners); and Film Offices of The Hawaiian Islands; Musicbed + Filmsupply; NEED Financial; Sony Pictures Studios; and The TEAM Companies (Supporting Partners).